Currently reading 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks. It's very well-done so far, and it's one of the least alarmist pieces of dystopian fiction I've encountered. Most of what he describes could plausibly happen, in other words. I can't help but wonder what he'd make of this story in film form, though.

I bailed on this after about 40 pages. No one loves Albert Brooks more than me, but his prose is SO BAD. I'll get back to it eventually, but I'm in no rush.

I don't think it's as bad as you, but I'm not exactly devouring the book either. So far it seems not as good as the Gary Shteyngart book from last year (which I was initially bored with but ended up really loving), but we'll see how it goes.

Does the Mould book explain why they never retrieved their back catalog from SST and remastered their earlier releases ala Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth and other bands?

He doesn't address it specifically in the book, but everything he says squares with the conventional wisdom that they couldn't work on it together and the other guys won't give up control and let Bob buy them out.

Does the Mould book explain why they never retrieved their back catalog from SST and remastered their earlier releases ala Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth and other bands?

He doesn't address it specifically in the book, but everything he says squares with the conventional wisdom that they couldn't work on it together and the other guys won't give up control and let Bob buy them out.

Yeah, that's what I have always heard as well. Is it that all three former members hate each other or is it basically Hart and Norton versus Mould?

How in depth does he go in his career as a WWF writer?

Logged

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now. Only much, much better."

I'm way late to the game on this one, but I just started American Psycho, and it's been amazing so far. On the side, I read one of the stories from Donald Barthelme's 60 Stories whenever I have a couple of minutes. About 24 stories in and I find it a bit hit and miss, but the hits are very strong.

I'm way late to the game on this one, but I just started American Psycho, and it's been amazing so far. On the side, I read one of the stories from Donald Barthelme's 60 Stories whenever I have a couple of minutes. About 24 stories in and I find it a bit hit and miss, but the hits are very strong.

I love Barthelme and find him the same way. For every really good one there're a couple about how annoying his wife is or how annoying he is to his wife.

I finished Infinite Jest (wonderfully bleak) and I am now concurrently poking my way through Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss, Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.

I just finished "The Lost City of Z" by David Grann which I enjoyed. It makes we want to read Bruce Chatwin's "Patagonia."

I'm re-reading "Breakfast of Champions" by Vonnegut which I remember being much funnier when I last read it in high school.

Joan Didion's "White Album" started strong (e.g. her psychiatric hospitalization, the Manson trial, the time she spent with Huey Newton) but I just couldn't bring myself to read about other people and places (e.g. the California governor's mansion) I have little interest in.

But Bottom of the 33rd (by Dan Barry) -- I can't say enough good things about this book. It's about the longest baseball game in history but that's really underselling it -- it's more about the struggles of trying to make it big and what happens when you don't. This is one of the best non-fiction books to come out in a REALLY long time.

Went to the library on Saturday, and got some page-turners:Robert Heinlein - Have Spacesuit, Will TravelRay Bradbury - The Illustrated Man (I just saw the movie which I liked, and I haven't read this book in 10 years)Stephen King - Night Shift - Cycle of The Werewolf I was bummed that they didn't have any good graphic novels at the library, but this did the trick. Very cool illustrations.

For the sci-fi people: a friend recommended the Succession Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld after I mentioned I needed to read some sci-fi to mitigate my general unhappiness about the decline of the space program. I've started it (book one, The Risen Empire), and am hooked. Within, find mote sized fighting ships with synesthesia-based controls, so the pilots can use all senses, unlike today's drone pilots who have to make due with sight alone. It's a mix of new and interesting ideas with a bit of the good old fashioned space opera feel to it as well. It's very good so far.